To our brothers and sisters, friends and family, and students, parents, and teachers of Capistrano Unified School District:

We offer this short letter as a gesture of solidarity from those students, professors, and workers of the University of California in Irvine who have struggled against budget cuts and skyrocketing costs of attending the university. We write to remind you that you are not alone in your struggle; that as students and workers occupy and strike in Puerto Rico, as UC students face expulsion for protesting, we are all fighting for education as a basic human need. Finally, we send this message because, as our future classmates and students, we recognize that your very access to the University of California and other institutions of quality higher education is threatened by the draconian cuts your schools are facing in this moment, and it is for this reason that we must march forward, K-12 and university students, hand in hand, to fight for our needs.

You surely know better than anyone that you’re heading into uncharted waters, that there is little precedent for either this budget situation or your response. And even from our own experience resisting cuts, there is little direction we can offer you. But what we can advise you to do is to never relent, to never constrain yourselves to the limits of your imaginations, to never stop and relax but always continue and expand the fight. In moments of crisis, the world is turned on its head; anything is possible, and any collective action is successful precisely because we are acting together. Don’t be content with restoring the system that brought on the collapse, but seek out genuine change.

As the French students said in 1968:Soyez réalistes, demandez l’impossible. Manquer d’imagination, c’est ne pas imaginer le manque.(Be realistic, demand the impossible. Those that lack imagination cannot imagine what is lacking.)

In admiration and solidarity,Students and employees of UC Irvine

More on the Strike and the situation in Capistrano Unified School District: